Invocation represents a woman whose pose suggests a gesture of prayer, in tune with Rodin’s view that religion “is the impulse of our conscience which in this life gives wings to our thoughts.” Born in Paris, Rodin demonstrated a vocation for drawing by age 13 and was enrolled in a special school for mathematics and drawing, where he first worked with three-dimensional media. After a trip to Italy, where he was inspired by the work of Michelangelo, Rodin broke from the academic mold. By the 1880s he was revolutionizing the art of sculpture and depictions of the human condition.